East West Rail Public Meeting - Monday 16 February 2026, 6:00pm - Bedford Borough Council streaming

East West Rail Public Meeting
Monday, 16th February 2026 at 6:00pm 

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An agenda has not been published for this meeting.

The microphones, as you can see, are very effective so you can speak very quietly.
But they have a thing in them that only one can be used at a time, so they have to be
turned off.
And it's for naughty councillors who keep talking over people.
So I'm sure we've got none of those tonight.
What we do have in the room is we have our local MP.
So I'm very pleased that he's joined us.
So sitting at the back there all mild and meek,
we perhaps ask him to speak later if he wishes.
I'm really excited to have him here.
So we are being live streamed, correct?
All the ladies are nodding in there, okay.
Because sometimes it drops off, it doesn't work
and all the rest of it and not the most reliable things.
So normally we have somebody called Paul
who's gonna do the opening, but I think what we'll do,
Paul, do you want to sort of talk about the offices
we've got here because we have an awful lot of council officers here who are
going to try and answer a few questions. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you all for
turning up tonight. You're very welcome here in the council chamber. My name is
Paul Pace. I'm the service director for public realm, highways and waste
management. So encompasses quite a lot of the functions to do with the council in
the streets, things like that, roads, green spaces.
I'd certainly like to welcome to my left,
starting off with Joanne.
Good evening, everyone.
Sorry, full start.
My name is Jo Branson -Burd.
I'm the head of Capital Projects, Infrastructure
and Sustainable Travel at Bedford Borough.
It's good to see you all here.
I am the head of planning and building control at the council.
afraid to responsive heart anything.
situation, I would like to
assure you that Councillors
So, hopefully that covers just about all the offices.
We also have some councillors here.
There are two councillors over there and two councillors here.
I can't see any other councillors here.
Oh, three, three.
Three councillors over there, an MP, and two councillors here.
So, well represented if anything should kick off.
What I didn't do was the fire thing.
If there is a fire alarm, it's a serious one,
because we don't have one planned, no alarms.
We have two exits, one that way, back to where you come,
and out towards the front of the building,
or the secret way around the back, please follow officers and they will direct all this sort of stuff.
You know, we should leave the building as soon as we can.
My bit of the meeting is to say content and purposes of the meeting.
I have been on this trail a long time about East West Rail.
My views on East West Rail are quite well known.
and what we've known over the last six to eight months is that ECSIS Rail are announcing
more and more things that they want to do to Bedford.
But they're very ambitious in what they want to build and do.
They're less accomplished in what they should be doing, which is telling people what's going
on.
And what we found was there's a real gap between what people were finding out and what was
actually planned.
So we as a council decided that we would use Antigua's team to try and make people aware.
And this came to a head when they said they wanted to knock down that row of houses near the station, the Don Polsky Club,
which was completely out of the blue, we didn't know that was coming.
The next thing is that they've also announced they want to now put a car park on the Queen's Park side of the tracks and use Ford End Road to supply it.
Again, complete news to us, not something the council wanted to say or do, it was just
something that they've landed on us.
And so we find that East West Rail, in their way they do things, has not been particularly,
shall we say, Bedford friendly or customer friendly, but talking to other colleagues,
it's how they operate.
It's their standard operating procedure, they're here to build a railway, they're here to get
on with it, and you know, we've got to live with it.
And I was quite, I'd say, angry, but just not happy with how it was going.
And so I've had a series of these meetings with people that are inside the Red Line,
outside the Red Line, people that are interested all around.
We've even got people from Y. Boston tonight, and from the villages.
So lots and lots of questions.
Now I have a list of questions here, so we'll probably do them later.
What I do have is I have the chief planner here who has firm opinions and you know about what should and shouldn't be done
But also got Joe who?
Meets with East West Rail very regularly. So if you have a question or you have a view then
Joe will be able to take that back and I'm T you will record it because
What we've found is that there some things they're good at like getting hold of landlords less good at contacting tenants
Less good at telling people what's going on or the progress.
So, it says on my agenda now, overview and current situation.
What we do is we do a bit of this and then we'll probably come back to the list of questions that people have sent through.
It's quite a long one. So, over to you.
So, over to Jo. I don't mind.
You
Thank you, ma 'am
I thought it would be helpful just to outline the current position in terms of where we are with it with East best rail and
As a major infrastructure in within Bedford
And across the wider route, but obviously a significant impact to bed for borough itself
So just to refresh in terms of how we got to where we are now
Four council debated and voted to support routine on the 2nd of June 2021.
So that's still the current position, albeit we're working with them to establish the detail
and tease out information.
There was a non -statuary consultation, which was number three, being predeceased by two
others that extended from the 14th of November to the 24th of January 2025.
And as a consequence the borough debated a non -statutory consultation response for Council
and submitted it as part of that process.
East West Rail published their UCEDD update on the 19th of November, so some months after
we'd submitted our response and various other consultation responses.
The motion was presented to for Council on the 26th of November and this was carried
and that was opposing the demolition of properties which included Ashburnham and Poets.
As things progressed, Council officers continued to attend multiple meetings with East West
Rail, a whole plethora of meetings talking about very different topics, specialist topic
areas which involve specialists from across the whole authority and externally as well.
And this is as the emerging designs are developed to raise queries, to challenge and to critique
the information that's being presented or support.
The proposed demolition continues to be opposed.
And these meeting notes and any meetings that the borough has with East West Rail are published
published on our web page and there's a link on the web page which Antiga can share.
Following the feedbacks of non -statuary consultation that was published on the 19th of November,
this has been reviewed by BBC officers and continues to be discussed at the various meetings
that we attend where information is presented to us and not necessarily always shared, but
it's information that's discussed.
Further to issue the UCEDD we did document the update required for the six tracks.
We are continuing to challenge that in terms of the rationale behind the need to incorporate
an additional two tracks.
So that work is currently ongoing.
And we have actually appointed external rail engineering experts to review where we currently
Are to review the information that was provided last year and to pick up on some of some some of the gaps in information
a
Further motion was presented for Council
I think it's the 4th of February from memory which opposing the construction of the most or a car park in Queen's Park
That was carried but that was also qualified by saying it would be subject to provision of various
information including traffic modelling and other critical infrastructure queries that we have.
As things currently stand, a further non -statuary consultation is anticipated in the spring this year.
There were two design update meetings, one was held at the Colwell Centre last Thursday,
and one was held in the Queens Park Community Centre on Saturday.
And I hope that you're able to attend and to feed back into that consultation process.
Your voice is important, it's really important, so we're keen to hear any concerns that you have
so that we can communicate those to East West Rail and we can represent you as residents.
The whole process has now been overtaken by the new planning infrastructure bill, which
incorporates a different process in terms of the development submission of the development
control order.
So I'll pass over to Gavin, if I may, and he'll give you a little more detail in that
respect.
Thank you, Jo, and a warm evening to everyone here.
So in terms of the DCO process,
there's about six different stages that we need to follow.
So as Joe has outlined in the introduction,
that we're at the pre -application stage of the process.
So what does that mean to us?
So pre -application is basically, it's data gathering,
and we're having a number of meetings with ES4L
on a number of subject matters at the moment.
But it's not just our voice is needed in terms of this process.
We need to hear from you as residents, businesses, tenants and residents in a local area.
We need to understand what is going on, what sort of communication are you having, are
you having any sort of positive, negative feedback from East West Rail so we can build
the case in regards to the DCO process.
So once we have that information, we can feed that back to East West Rail and we can formulate
our sort of main areas of arguments in terms of the process.
So when I say arguments, this would form our basis for our hearing sessions.
So once the pre -application has been accepted and accepted at the East West
Rail's stage with a planning inspector it goes to a public examination. They are
due to start that process in 2027. We don't know yet how long that process is
going to be. It could be six months, it could be twelve months depending on the
number of issues that are considered as part of that process. So our arguments
would be based on what you say, what we think is important as well, and we would have hearing
sessions based on those areas.
And the planning inspector who is appointed to review, assess, ask questions and make
a recommendation will basically concentrate on these hearing sessions.
Once those hearing sessions have been heard, you as residents can attend, you can ask questions,
who can give you evidence, et cetera, at that meeting, then the recommendation will be made
by the planning inspector.
At this stage, we don't know when that recommendation is going to be made.
They need to put a valid application forward.
It needs to be accepted by the planning inspector.
And once that is accepted, then that will go through the examination process.
I think it's important from this session, and not even just from this session, outside
of this session, to get your views.
If you think of anything outside of this meeting, please let me know, please let the team know,
so then we can engage proactively with East West Rail going forwards.
That's all I want to say for now, because there's a lot of questions which have been
asked and it's important that we can answer these questions accordingly in this meeting.
Thank you.
Normally it's about now Antigua tells me how it should be.
Is there anything you want to add, Antigua?
No, I think you've covered all of it actually.
I just want to stress that these meetings have been, we're holding these meetings to
to inform you of how you can stay informed.
We are not East West Rail,
but what we do want to do is ensure
that you do know where to go to find the information
and that you know where to go to have your voice heard.
And it's really important that our responses align
and consider what the feeling is of the community
and our residents.
So I hope that that is some helpful context
for you to have in mind
as you get your answers to the questions that you have raised this evening.
And there will be some questions that again we cannot answer, but we will take away and we will continue to challenge and ask for clarity from East West Rail.
I have a list of pre -sent questions. Does anybody have any questions now?
RMP is going to ask the first question.
This is exciting, just like old times.
Mr Mayor, thank you so much for giving me this
opportunity to ask my question.
I apologise I have to leave
because I have another event after 7 o 'clock.
I will grab this opportunity
with the thanks.
In your opening remarks, Mr Mayor,
you said that the proposal for
the multi -storey car park
on the road in Queens Park is a surprise for you.
Is that a surprise?
But when residents were speaking with East Australia yesterday, they were very clear
that the reason they're moving initial car park from Ashburnham Road to Foden Roadside,
because with the consultation, when they had a consultation with the council, council basically
suggested to find alternative place because the council wants to build or sell to developers
because Council owns the land at Ashburnham Road.
So when the Council asked East West Rail to find an alternative place,
which location was in Council's mind?
That is the most excellent question,
because we have a love -hate relationship with East West Rail.
I don't particularly like them at all,
but we have not signed a non -disclosure agreement with East West Rail.
Now my predecessor had a series of meetings with East West Rail that were secret, that
nobody knows.
Part of my coming in was we had to have meetings with East West Rail that were open, honest
and transparent.
And every meeting these people have, or officers of the council have with East West Rail, is
minuted and has an agenda and we know what subjects are discussed, not whole things.
So when I said it was a complete surprise to us, it was.
We have had a series of meetings with East West Rail and they're documented and I think Joe you have the actual wording
Bear in mind this thing's got to be nine storeys high
It's gonna be a fair lump of a car park it is not something that we thought they'd be putting in Queen's Park
My personal view is that they have chosen the wrong route and coming through the middle of town isn't particularly edifying to anybody
So Joe's just looking for what we discussed earlier, but it is not our view as a Borough Council that that is a good place for a multi -storey car park.
What we did say is that they should look for stuff. We rather hope they might... there we go.
They are bringing stuff forward. Here we go. I'm springing out for time because Joe's looking for the actual wording of the motion. Here we go.
Apologies and the feedback that we provided during the non -statuary consultation response from 24 25
Was that the council supports the provision of replacement car parking?
Provision so I'm just reading as it is
Double but would be willing to work with a special company to find better locations for the proposed multi -store
Storey car park if these are available. We have not identified
identified this location I
Suspect what's happened is because they have listened to our requirement for an up fast platform
And they've used the opportunity in terms of the Western access to put the car park there now
I believe that before before these proposals were
Submitted or
Were open for discussion. They were proposing to use that area as a temporary car park
But we had raised concerns about the impact to traffic congestion, etc, etc
So it would have all had to be it will need to be subject to
Detailed traffic modelling and an understanding of how Bedford works
Hopefully that is the answer that
Mr. Mayor, I don't think you answered my my question, unfortunately
So it's very clear that the council asked them to find alternative place
We know this area very well.
You know, there is no other place to build the car park.
So it's very obvious that they go over the line towards Fordham Roadside and propose one there.
So my second question is, Mr. Mayor, is that now the motion has gone through,
presented by Councillor Nesbitt -Nucked and seconded by Councillor Massut,
ask the council to, and ask actually yourself Mr. Mayor, to join councillors and MP and
oppose this multi -storey car park.
When you write into East West Rail opposing this multi -storey car park, and can you please
highlight that the too narrow access to, they're proposing to this car park, especially Ford
and Road Bridge and House Grove, there is absolutely no way they'll be able to take
volume of traffic, especially when they're proposing a 1 ,000 cars car park there.
I have made a political study of opposing East West Rail. That is what I have done for
many years. I've met them on many occasions and I raised this with them and I said to
them in one of our meetings, it was minute of course, that they said, you know, we've
got this problem on Ford Enron. They said, don't worry, we've already talked to the
councillors and I've discussed this with the councillors. They said, no, no, no problem.
and they rushed it away.
The trouble is, East West Rail will not take from us as our view
that that is an unsuitable place.
And I totally agree with you that it is a totally unsuitable place
for a large multi -storey car park.
And I will do my absolute best,
having raised it once already with them on a number of occasions
when we met, to take it back to them again.
So whether we want to do a joint letter saying it's a bad thing,
I think that's the most excellent idea.
I'm really sorry, I don't want to dominate this meeting, but Mr. Mayor,
the full council asks you, as a leader of this council, to write to East West Rail and oppose this.
You can't just try to slip away from it. I think this is your duty now, because you did not oppose that motion.
It's your duty now to write to East West Rail and say, this council has passed this motion
and we are against this multi -storey car park on Porter Roadside.
I'll repeat what I said.
That motion went through and it was unanimous.
And I was really pleased that all the councillors here voted against East West Rail.
It's one of the few times that we've had joy on East West Rail.
But as a council we were united because there are so many different views.
My view remains the same, that's totally unsuitable.
And I'll make sure that letter goes off to East West Rail.
They are still doing their consultations.
We have a number of rural ones yet to come and we will probably talk about them later.
So I have made a study of East West Rail and I will do my absolute best to oppose that
car park to make sure that it is not going ahead.
Coming through the middle of town and constructing things like that is just not a good idea.
So thank you very much for turning up and supporting.
Now I do have a Councillor's indicated, so come on Councillor.
Thank you Mr Mayor. Would you be writing to the Minister of State for rail for us as well?
Opposing this.
The Minister? Well I'll write to the Minister as well. Tell you what, we'll fire up a few letters.
I don't think we'll do what we can. Somebody's writing it even as we speak, so that's lovely jubbly.
I think that's a splendid idea.
I just really want to correct the record because you said it at the last meeting and you've
said it again that East West Rail said that they've spoken to the councillors in Queen's
Park and they're fully on board. They haven't spoken to the councillors in Queen's Park.
They've spoken to the councillors in Cauldwell. So just I think it's really important that
you correct the record because it's twice that you've said that.
There's a lot of the Queen's Park community here.
Shall we put it on record?
I was quoting the East West Rail people.
They are, that's what they said in the meeting.
But I will stand corrected about who said what to whom.
This is an unsuitable site.
It's not right for the purposes they want to put right to.
And the councillors for that area will fight for that area as I know they will.
The fact that East West Rail are a b**** let's not go there.
Less than straight sometimes.
Sorry, someone's got a question over here.
I did see a hand up here.
Hi, yeah, I just wanted to just raise a couple of points.
I was at the meeting, the information session at Queens Park over the weekend.
Spoke in depth with Anthony, one of the engineers, and Sarah, who's the team manager or liaison
officer.
I don't think there was anybody there, there was a lot of people there,
there wasn't anybody there that was in favour of the car park, surprise, surprise.
But what I did notice was that on their plans they did have these two sections on Ashburnham Road,
which I understood the two sections are council owned and it said offered for redevelopment to third parties.
So that's how I raised, and it said that on one of their display boards in the middle.
And that's where we were thinking, well, why has that not been used at the car park?
And they said, well, it was suggested that we could look at alternative places.
And apparently this bit of land over in Queens Park is the network rail they own that, is
that correct?
Right.
Yeah.
So, there was a lot of suggestions.
they said, oh, it can't go on Ashbunham Road because there's a conservation area opposite.
And a lot of people said, well, and so what?
Really, if it's opposite, it's not on the conservation area.
So why don't you just go underground and, you know,
accommodate the 900 and odd 80 spaces that they require?
So speaking in a little bit more detail with Anthony, and I said, well, how much do you need?
And they said, well, because we're wanting to create a western entrance.
And I said, well, what's the rationale?
and who's asked for that and is it needed?
And he said, well, yeah, it would make it more accessible.
And I think that in principle,
a lot of people are not adverse to,
it's just the access to it.
And they said, the reason we need to move the car park
is because we're going to make the entrance
of the station bigger.
And I said, okay, so what proportion of the station
would take up the car park?
So then could you not use the existing car park and go above?
And as the engineer, he wasn't able to tell me what proportion of the existing car park,
the surface level, that they want to use for the station.
So I said, obviously, there's some sort of displacement.
So what you take from the car park proportionally, why can you not add on?
Because we're surrounded within half a mile by multi -storey buildings anyway.
So why can it not just stay there?
That's one reason.
That makes a lot of sense to me, as I'm sure it did to a lot of other people.
but he wasn't able to answer what proportion of the car park would be taken.
That was one suggestion.
The other part, just, and finally, going back to the Fordin Road Bridge,
is not fit for purpose as it is.
There's been a lot of concerns over the past decade,
especially since Henry Road has been built,
of emergency services being able to access Queen's Park.
On one side, there's the A428, and on the other side, there's the river.
So there's not really any place to expand in there.
There's not choices for people to go any other route.
You come into it from Ford End or you come in from Hirstgrove Bromham Road.
So that part of the access I think people didn't have a lot of issue with.
For that to be suggested, I don't know whoever came up with the idea and nobody is in favour of that.
I understand that Councillor Nasrin and others they put a big petition in as well and that's gone and everyone's opposed to it.
So I don't think that should be heavily opposed on behalf of the residents of Queens Park.
It's not going to work.
Where we've got access on Ashburnham Road, you're coming in off an A road.
This is a very, very tightly populated and overpopulated area.
We've got parking issues as it is.
We were given extra parking but really we weren't.
you took our footpath and gave us parking.
So nothing was widened.
So there's lots and lots of issues like that.
And then you could go on to the other side.
On the feasibility side, I don't know what environmental studies have been done,
whether the ground's suitable, what pollution it will cause, blah, blah, blah.
All these are the health issues.
So I think in conclusion, I would say it would be nice to know,
when you feedback, this was all given back to them.
They were a bit red in the face by the end of the day
because they really got it in the neck from everybody that was there.
It would be nice to know what proportion of the existing station is going to be taken up by the car park.
And why can we not work with that displacement and go on a multi -storey where it is?
That's what I'd like you guys to raise.
I'm really glad that you gave East Lusral a good telling off.
It wasn't only me, it was everyone.
I find with East Lusral that, to quote one of our officers, they just pop back up and say it's all popular and it's going well.
It's quite obvious this is a wrong place, it's quite obvious that it's not going to please anybody.
I'm really glad our MPs turned up and helped us with this debate because it is really something I'm really positive about.
I'm really glad that council has brought forward a petition that was so popular.
So hopefully, thank you for that.
Have we got any inkling about how the station is percentage wise?
Have they given us any plans?
Because we sat here, I think it was one of the meetings before last, where a lady said
you've been at this five years, I live more or less opposite, what is my view going to
be like?
And they couldn't give us a straight answer could they?
And they said well surely you must have some plans to tell us what it's going to look like,
you've been at this a long time and they couldn't, they couldn't and they wouldn't.
So Jo, you meet with them far more than I do.
The basis of the design updates were the You Said We Did document that goes back to last
November and then there were certain iterations in terms of how things have moved on.
So I think within the You Said We Did document it did identify the car park, the multi -storey
car park as being within Queen's Park.
Now, obviously, any design solution can consider options.
And in terms of the concerns regarding traffic, the bridge, et cetera, that's all being fed
back to them.
And these are issues that we're raising with them to potentially reconsider alternative
options.
And that's all we asked to do within the non -STAT consultation was to consider alternative
options.
Now clearly there's a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of looking at the traffic
modelling, looking at the new gateway access on the western side, which I think we consider
as a positive.
That's what we'd asked.
And reintroducing the Upfast platform and access to the station, that will separate
traffic movements.
But there's clearly a lot more work that needs to be done.
So rest assured I will take that away as an action and raise that again in terms of considering
alternative options.
I just wanted to add really briefly, thank you for the more detailed update.
When we were at the Trinity, I don't know if any of you came to Trinity College when they had their update.
EWR actually hosted it, sorry.
And they actually said there, I think it was the first time we'd all heard because we kind of took a sharping take of breath,
That the Ashburn and roadside was for Bedford Borough Council to develop and we were kind of all looked at each other
So what that's news to us, they haven't spoken to us about that
That's just what they're saying in their plans
And I think it's just another example how?
Ewr do things as you found when they said they've spoken to other councillors or other engagements
And they haven't actually spoken to to the right people to make these claims
So we are learning a lot about how we do our but it certainly wasn't something
that we have discussed with them.
Given as far as I understand the new legislation
does not require them to do a statutory consultation but only to have
meaningful engagement which I think we pretty much can all
agree that they haven't had any meaningful engagement. They either don't know what they're doing
or they don't wish to tell anybody. How are the council going to address them if they don't have
to do is to actually do consultation.
How are you going to deal with them under meaningful engagement
or are they simply going to dump on you their plans
for their development consent order?
Yeah. Thank you for your question.
So in terms of that, we would collate the evidence ourselves,
for yourselves, given that feedback.
And others said that we would have hearing sessions
at the examination, which is important to us,
and that would be fed back to the planning inspector.
And then the planning inspector would ask questions
about issues like transport,
could be issues in terms of impacts to people's wellbeing,
in terms of the mean -to -impact,
impact in terms of traffic congestion,
and all these different matters would be considered
as part of that process.
So that's how we would look to engage in the process
and to fight the cases which is important to the council
and to the residents as a whole.
They can do their own sort of consultation
as part of their application,
but we would do our own sort of application as well,
which is important to us.
And then we would have focus sessions at the examination
and in terms of that process, that's how we would do that.
If there's no statutory consultation,
then their meaningful engagement may or may not be,
you're gonna end up having to fight them over
with the consent order because you're not going to get any information until that point.
So there's not going to be statutory consultation.
There's just going to be straight to DCO, which means you're going to be dealing with
somebody who has already set all their plans that they have no requirement to tell anybody
about, and we know they don't.
I mean, frankly, we've dealt with them for our incalabra.
They don't wish to reveal information.
they're very exclusive about it.
Surely this is going to make it way harder
because you're going to be so much further down the line.
They'll have put in an application
and you've now got to fight that application
rather than dealing with a statutory consultation.
Yeah, I mean, you raised some valid points there
in terms of that process.
And I suppose that's where, you know,
through these meetings that we're having at the moment
with East West Rail, we will feed that back to them and make sure they engage in that
process.
That's what we're doing at the moment on a continuous basis.
And I think Antigua will share the email address that you should send all your details to us
and then we can engage in that process and feed that back to us.
I know there's a lot of issues that we're not aware of as a council and I know from
previous residents meetings, like last week we had a meeting and it seems to me residents
are writers at East West Rail and they're not getting a response from them. So if you're
in that similar sort of field, let us know what's going on and then we will engage with
them in terms of that. And that's what we're doing all the time and we're just trying to
hold them accountable in terms of what they're doing,
so they can provide a further update
in terms of the next stages of the application.
So are you going to be able to object
to their development consent order?
As in if there are things that they propose in Bedford
that you don't want to happen,
do you have the power to stop that?
Because it sounds to me and I we talked to eat up East West Rail because we're out in Clapham and they won't part of a
little part of our land
They'll get their development consent order and they'll just slap everybody with compulsory purchase orders and you will have no choice
You know, I mean, I'm gonna delve into ours the route out of
Clapham Road which goes up the hill
they were going to cost a tonne, because we asked about it, and they came back with,
we don't think it's valuable. They didn't cost it, they said they would and they didn't.
But the other problem that we had dealing with them, and I doubt everybody else has this,
we only get to talk to the team that deal with from Clapham Road up the hill and off to
Ray Pustin.
Those areas are way better than me.
And they don't take on board any advantages of anything outside their little area.
And they don't actually seem to talk to the people in the other areas either.
So we're being told they're going to do things like they would cost a tonne to see whether it had advantages, disadvantages.
And all they do is send us back something going, well we don't think it does.
It's not costing it.
Now I have to say our view is that they're just slow rolling us.
it will be another six months before you get that answer.
On the basis that they're going to fix their, to do their consultation, whatever it will happen to be,
they're going to fix everything by January next year.
So if they don't deliver any information in the next three to six months,
we've got very little chance of having any input on it.
And they don't seem to wish to develop any information. Sorry, I'll...
So in terms of that, have you yazed with the council at that point at all?
Have you sent any information?
And I think it's worth you sending it to us in the first instance.
I think in terms of the DCO process, it's not a done deal in terms of the process.
There needs to be a process for the examination which needs to be heard for a public hearing.
And you know, all these matters will come out in the open and will be discussed and be examined.
So I think the more evidence we can gather now, which is important to yourself as residents and important to the council,
we will put that forward as part of that DCO process and build a case accordingly.
So that's how we will fight the case together and support you in that process really.
And and and that's the reason why we're having these meetings at the moment on various topic areas like transport ecology
Design the car park for example and always different areas. So that's so that's how we're building our case at the moment
Okay
Can I just add to goings comments
With the upcoming next non -statuary consultation in the spring, that doesn't mean to say you
can't feed back.
It's an iterative process that you can submit your comments at any point in time.
So I would encourage you to do so and to copy us in.
I'm trying to remember, there's a specific East West Rail address and I asked the very
question, where should comments be sent to?
and I think it's East West Rail at, but I will double cheque that and Antigua can share
that just to confirm.
And then if you copy us into your responses and we can collate that information which
would be really, really helpful.
Clarify that they wish to buy part of the land that we own.
So we deal with them directly.
So and to be honest that's our frustration.
They don't tell us almost anything.
and they're very, very prescriptive about what they tell us,
and frankly, you know, we've had conversations with them
when they show us a snippet of a drawing,
and then we suddenly go,
hang on a minute, that's not like the drawing
you showed us last time.
And suddenly there's a change.
And things like, for example,
all of our services run up the road
they wish to cut through,
and they had absolutely no plan for how to deal with it.
When I say all of our services,
I mean gas, electric, water, drainage,
the Lord. They had no idea, no plan at all.
If I could just add, if I may, so we're working very closely with the Clapham Parish Council
and with Richard Fuller MP as well, and Richard Fuller did actually
broker a meeting with East West Rail's Chief Executive for us.
That's when we asked about the tunnel costings. So
even at that level they're not responding, they're just slow rolling us.
And when I put together our non -statutory consultation response
on behalf of where we live, Clapham Park Management Company,
I did actually copy Mayor Tom into that as well.
So I don't know whether you'll be able to locate that.
Thank you.
You're probably speaking to the most un -PC person
in that whole room.
Driving a computer is not my cup of tea,
but I think Antigua would like to see that
and we'll incorporate it, what you said.
If I can come in there,
just on a couple of points that you've raised actually.
Yes, and completely not taking away the experience with EWR and that we potentially are being
slow rolled, you know, and I think that's a shared frustration.
But East West Rail have actually put their hands up in multiple meetings that I've attended
over the last two weeks and said, we recognise that we've not been doing enough, which is
the first time we've heard that.
We are going to keep challenging and pushing for them to make sure that their community
consultation, I know that that's not a statutory consultation, but the community
consultation that's happening in the spring is a place where we can try
to encourage as many people as possible to respond and your personal
experience in engaging with East West Rail, you know, that would be really
helpful if you could copy us in and I appreciate that you've copied Mayor
Tom in the past but if you could copy in communities at Bedford .gov .uk I will
to follow that up with everybody in the room so that you know where you can contact East
West Rail directly and if you could copy us in or share any previous communications with
us that would be really helpful because at the end of the day we are trying to build
up that evidence base and it's not to say that we'll be successful and we'll get all
the right answers and we'll get exactly what we want but I think what's really important
is that we have the paper trail that we need to be able to have a sound argument and to
able to challenge them in future. I hope that is helpful. I'm conscious that this lady over
here has had her hand up for a while and we've got quite a few questions that have been pre -submitted
where you've all been able to think about your questions. You've been waiting ever such a long
time, come on. Thank you Mr Mayor, obviously as you know you recognise my face, I've been here
quite a few times now representing Queen's Park. I would just like to, we need to tell you what my
Brother over there and said about Queens Park
They, did have quite a few people of Queens Park, myself being one of them
That basically told him it's not going to work
Also if you're saying you look at congestion's on roads and transportation side have you guys even looked at Queens Park recently
Because as councillor gribble does know, we've lost a lot of the bus service due to the roads
It's only going down one road now and then we've got Bromham Road in,
and Ford End Road out, so you've got two ways to get in.
They're also on about closing down Bromham Road Bridge
because they want to extend the bridge.
So that means everything coming from North Hampton,
going that way, going down Bromham Road into town.
Oh no, it's okay, we'll just stick it all through Queen's Park again.
So they're going to be coming through Queen's Park and Ford End Road Bridge.
And then you're also on about put in another 600 homes in Queens Park
Where are we in Queens Park supposed to park live breathe?
Let alone if we want to pass wind because he's getting beyond a joke now in Queens Park. It's like
You've got Universal Studios. Let's just put Universal Studios in the middle of Queens Park. It's okay Queens Park can handle it
It's honestly it's like we've got illegal parking. We've got illegal traders. We've got flatbed trucks
We've got holes that basically you if you want to get rid of a couple of bodies
I can show you where some good holes are around Queens Park in the roads
But it's honestly it is getting beyond a joke and it's like it seems like every time people from Queens Park try and speak up
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll do this. We'll do that. We'll do road surveys. Let's just keep pushing it under the rug
No, it's like and then you're also on about like I said, I know it's to do with EWR
But you're on about putting temporary housing as well as long with the other 600
How are we as a community supposed to cope and then you W are saying they want to build like a footpath
From where they're proposing the you know, the car park
Underneath the bridge. Okay, who's going to patrol that?
That's going to be drug haven
Whatever people what I do that people of Queens Park have to come out old school again and start patrolling our streets again
Like we had to back in the day
Because honestly it's like it seems like we are not being heard
And it is very, very, very frustrating.
Thank you, Tracey.
Yeah, I know you spoke about passing wind.
There's certainly a lot of hot air within East West Rail, I can assure you.
I just firstly want to say to everyone in this room, we did not push that car park into Queen's Park.
We really didn't.
It's not it's not the case it really isn't the case
It was a shock. It was a surprise to us when we saw it on the drawing
It really was so please do not think that it was never the case. It really wasn't
Tracy can I come to Queens Park again?
Or can you come and meet me here at Borough Hall and I'll we'll have a meeting with officers
I was in Queens Park last week. We were looking at it is Lee Road, which has just been resurfaced
We've got traffic coming measures on old Ford End Road coming
You know, I understand the frustration with busses
Can I come or can you come here and I'll organise a meeting with officers as well?
That wouldn't be a problem but it's like
It just seems like when guys come into Queens Park
Like officers have come into Queens Park in the past when we had our meeting on the 14th of November 2024. We're still waiting on
Come back or outcomes from that meeting that we had with
He was there the councillors were there the community of Queens Park and quite a few councillors here
Yet we're doing this we do that all we're hearing from the council is crickets. We're not getting no responses. We're not getting nothing
but it's like
When we actually got told by EWR, it was not this administration then that the tape might have been the previous administration
That it was basically the council told us we could put it here
Have you ever thought about the car part that's across the road on prevent straight?
That great big car park that's just sitting there that bit of land where they had the kovat tense up and people had to go
and get injections
Stick the multi -storey there and then they can walk from prevent straight
To the train station or if you want i will say it and i do get on very, well with council
We stick it in great denham and put on a shuttle bus and get it down ford and road
Don't stick it don't let them put it in queen's park
Honestly there will be a lot of uproar because the congestion at the minute in queen's park there's going to be
It's not very good
Okay, i'm for those, who don't know the car park opposite, borough, hall
That that car park there
has got a planning commission on it for a lot of houses.
And I put it on hold because I said it's not something on,
it's the last flat area in the whole town, we can't have that.
So those plans are on hold and I have put it...
There's no secret, I have put it towards the hospital
and I said if the hospital want to use it as a car park,
it's up to them.
So we're not going to do anything on it until the building around the hospital is sorted.
because the hospital might need it. It's the last flat bit of ground for a car park anywhere.
And I don't want to do anything on it until we've pinned down exactly how they're going to work with the hospital.
Because how you work a hospital with no car park, there are medical people here. How do you do it?
And I don't know because they plan to build a great multi -storey in the car park of the hospital as long as putting the railway through.
That is another one that...
So, yeah, it's a great idea.
I am not going to do anything on that car park at the present time
because I've reserved it for the use of the hospital while they want it.
When they come to me and say,
look, Tom, we don't need it no more, that's fine.
But at the minute, we are passing up quite a lot of money
because they could have built flats and stuff on it.
I said, no, please don't.
So that is one of the things that I've put on hold.
Blame me for that.
That is what I've done.
and we're working with the hospital because I said we just can't build on that last little bit of flat ground.
We'll see what we can do.
Right, you've had your hand up, sir.
What was I saying?
Yeah, do you all remember the last mayor had a plan there to put a road under the arches on the Bedford town side
and a road going around to Top Envar onto Preven Street?
The Pre -Bend Street Relief Road, I think is the name of that scheme, hasn't progressed
very far I should imagine.
Well could that site not be used for a car park and it's nearer to the station?
I will put it to them, I think it's owned by Royal Mail and the station people, but
we will find that out, because that's a good suggestion.
If you're going to put a road through it, you may as well put a car park on it.
Like many things, the council's got no money, but I will put it towards officers to find out what the situation is, who owns what and where.
How do we get in... Well, tell you what Antigua, you might want to talk. All the stuff we're talking about is on your website, isn't it?
So Antigua's taking notes, so we could pin this to the bottom of the notes, couldn't we?
Any other questions?
Ah, a question from Y. Boston.
Good evening Mr. Mayor and thank you for this meeting.
Firstly I really sympathise with the people in Queen's Park.
My fellow parish Councillor and I attended the East West Rail meeting.
It took us two days by pony and tractor coming from Y. Boston.
But three things I took away from that meeting and we were there early.
The first thing I said to Sarah Jacobs was, is there anything new? No, not really.
The second thing, I looked at some maps of St John's and of Midland Road station layouts, provisional, stamped over them.
So that's a waste of time because we've had dealings with their maps before and they change them at the bat of an eye.
But the important thing is that that meeting was open to the public from 12 till 5 or something like that.
But it was open from 11 to 12 for members of the East West Rail local representatives group.
people which are parish councillors, town councillors, borough councillors, etc.
And for the whole hour from 11 o 'clock to 12 o 'clock there were just the two of us that came in by pony and track from Wyre Boston because nobody else bothered.
So can I suggest that you get hold of your local councillors, parish councillors, get them by the scruff of the neck, shake them up and say get off your backside and damn well do something.
A very good rural comment, thank you for that.
It was one of two meetings and I think most councillors went to the first.
Councillor Dillon has had his hand up.
You know, I think maybe just correct the record slightly to my good friends in front from Y. Boston
But I think at least I think at least four borough councillors went to Queen's Park
I don't know about four works. I can go to that one myself
So and the MP at the MPS as I'm reminded the MP was also there so we did turn up
I personally was not aware of the opened at 11 for the
For the closed groups that were part of I thought it opened at 12 and that's when I got there
So, yeah, it's news to me that it was open early for a special session for the rest of us.
They opened it the day before earlier, well, two days before when they were near the hospital.
The one that was really easy to park by. So, yeah, it had to take me ages to back out of there.
And now I went there and there were several councillors there as well. So the councillors have been going to these meetings.
Any other questions?
The chap in the black.
Basically, can we take it that this present route is officially accepted?
We are just tidying up the loose ends.
We're talking about Carpark being here, Carpark being there,
and we're not thinking about the bombshell that will hit Bedford
in the future as work progresses.
I mean, we hear a little about it, but it will only get worse.
And we don't really know the full scale
because East West Rail doesn't tell us much and they change things around all the time
and it looks as if they're getting their way.
So, does it really...
All I'm wondering is whether it's actually
accepted that this is going to happen and happen
their way.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So the destruction, the chaos, the destruction of people, and the displacement of the beat.
The destruction while on the vinyl, is seen as collateral.
So I'm not speaking for her heart, I haven't scripted this at all.
and the quality of care in our case.
It's not right.
And a million pounds of normally,
everyone else is here, it's cheaper.
And I can't explain this,
better is the name of a really disciplined.
Yes, me.
What you are is very perceptive, but it is not very literal, very tough.
One is a group, say you were in a care group town, one is split, and one is firmly against it.
If you want the chapter to reverse the way you want it to work, it's a storey.
You can storey it.
But if we have to capture the end of it, don't worry.
We have lots of captures, but this is only for it.
The ones you see are hard.
Thank you.
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